Best Canadian iPhone Plan?

October 4, 2009 10:03 PM

I'm in Canada. I have a new contractless iPhone. What's the best voice/data plan for me?

The best the guy at Rogers could come up with was around $78 per month, which doesn't seem a whole lot better the the $99 contract with a subsidized iPhone. How can I get a better deal?

posted by timeistight to technology (9 comments total)

$78 per month, which doesn't seem a whole lot better the the $99 contract with a subsidized iPhone. How can I get a better deal?

That's a difference of $20 over probably three years, or $720. That's about what the phone would be worth, right?

Not saying there might not be cheaper routes, but that $difference between subsidized and no-contract seems about right to me.
posted by rokusan at 12:45 AM on October 5

I have a pretty good plan, with a 3 year contract, that comes to $75/month. 6 GB data, a couple hundred daytime minutes, free evening/weekends @ 6, and an iPhone specific addon package that includes visual vm and texts. I've been with rogers 10+ years and it took me two hours on the phone to get that with my iPhone.

You haven't told us what the $78 was for. It's a good deal if it's for something like my plan. It's a crappy deal if its 500 KB of data with 100 minutes and evenings @ 9.

Poke around iphoneincanada.ca for ideas on what a good deal is and ideas on how to get a better one.
posted by cgg at 8:18 AM on October 5 [1 favorite has favorites]

Fido: $35 voice plan + $30 data plan.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:41 AM on October 5

The problem is that you already have your phone, so you lose you ability to negociate between carriers.

Ask for a corporate plan, they offer better deals. See if Rogers or Fido have corporate plans for your employer/professionnal association/alma mater. If it's not the case, Rogers won't offer you corporate plans so go see a reseller. Resellers are more likely to "bend the rules" just to get the sale.

This is what I got :
350 min
free evening/weekends @ 6
voicemail + caller ID
SAF+911
6gb data

57$ + tx
posted by racingjs at 10:15 AM on October 5

You haven't told us what the $78 was for. It's a good deal if it's for something like my plan. It's a crappy deal if its 500 KB of data with 100 minutes and evenings @ 9.

I think it was the latter based on me trying to carve down to the minimum. I'm a complete cell phone Luddite so my head was kind of spinning with all the choices required by the time we got that far.

Ask for a corporate plan, they offer better deals.

Mrs. timeistight's little non-profit society is with Roger's. Maybe we can leverage that somehow.

If I can sneak in a bonus question: Should I just wait until Telus rolls out GSM to see if competition improves the landscape?
posted by timeistight at 11:02 AM on October 5

I'm in Canada and just bought an iPhone with contract from Rogers, and the plan ended up being $45/mo + $7.50 for "system access", 911, etc. and an additional $12 for caller ID and voicemail (which was technically optional), so around $65/mo. We'll see if the 500MB/mo. data is enough for me; I normally only check e-mails and do some light web browsing on 3G/EDGE.
posted by pravit at 2:34 PM on October 5

Should I just wait until Telus rolls out GSM to see if competition improves the landscape?

Judge for yourself : Bell, Telus to launch iPhone next month.

If you are not in a hurry, it would be wise to wait.
posted by racingjs at 5:30 PM on October 5

Do you have an existing plan? When I got my iPhone, they had an offer for existing customers that amounted to an extra $40 on top of my existing voice plan to add 6 gigs data and visual voicemail. Still nowhere near as good a deal as racingjs's or cgg's plan, though. (My voice plan gives me 200 anytime minutes with no evenings/weekends deal at all and my total actual bill comes to $82/month.) I'd wait for the Bell/Telus rollout myself just so you have options.
posted by arto at 12:51 PM on October 6

No existing plan; I've managed to get by for the past 59 years without one, which is why the idea of spending over $1,000 per annum so I can use my new toy makes me a little queasy.

I kind of like the idea of pay-as-you-go but the Rogers guy told me it would be prohibitively expensive, even for an anti-social Luddite like me. Is that true?
posted by timeistight at 3:44 PM on October 6